The explanation for these successes isn’t complicated, according to the report’s author, John Dinsdale: Microsoft and IBM have both been heavily focusing on their cloud businesses.

“And it’s not just talk,” Dinsdale, Synergy chief analyst and research director, told CRN. “They are backing it up with a lot of investment.”

Both diversified tech giants devoted much of their recent quarterly earnings calls to talking about their cloud businesses, Dinsdale noted.

“Microsoft also has a strong base of enterprise clients through its other product offerings, which gives it credibility and a good foundation for business expansion,” Dinsdale said.

Chris Hertz, CEO of Washington D.C.-based Microsoft partner New Signature, told CRN the report “is definitely welcome news as it validates everything we see in the marketplace.”

“Generally speaking, we just don’t see Google all that often in our mid-market accounts and Microsoft Azure has really taken off over the last 12 months,” Hertz said.

New Signature is talking to nearly all of its customers about either testing the cloud waters or moving additional services for those already there.

“Office 365, Azure, Windows Intune and Dynamics CRM Online are always part of that conversation,” Hertz said. “It’s a big change from two years ago and even a big jump from a year ago as evidenced by the Synergy Group data.”